Okay, I screwed up!!!

[Dragon]

In an attempt to see if I could get chat working I've spent the afternoon doing different things .... all futile!

In the process, I managed to crater the database and BlueHost, our Hosting company restored it as of 01:00 AM 05/11/2014
What this means  Any messages posted today have gone away ... I'm sorry!  Someone please shoot me!! Please!!!

Chat still does not work - and I don't think I'm going to try to fix it anymore.  In theory it hasn't been compatible with this version of SMF (the forum software) for quite a while, we're were just lucky that it worked for as long as it did.

[JenniLynne]

You're only human Dragon... You've done the best you can to try and fix an issue that's been going on for a while. A little snafu is ok. THANK YOU for what you do here.

Peace & :ht:,
Jenni

[Lurker.In.The.Night]

As long as the forum doesn't permanently implode, we're fine.

[liz]

instead of fixing chat here, maybe we can create a separate room on chatzy.com for us to use? we can make it a premium room so that we can do private messages with each other. whaddya think?

[nightsong]

:hug08:  :hug08:  We all appreciate how much you work here!  To me the "meat" of the board is the forum and not chat, but that may be just me being old-school.    There were definite benefits to it though, primarily convenience.  Liz mentioned one, are there other options we could explore as well? 

In the meantime, if it's not too much of a headache, is it possible to put something up on the portal about chat being down?

[Dragon]

1) Of course there are options ... I've got a couple, besides chatsy to look at.
2) Maybe .... I'm thinking about making a few changes to it, like not going to chat from there since you have to be logged into the forum to get to chat in the first place.  (with almost anything I've looked at that holds true.)

[Lurker.In.The.Night]

I know I used to moderate a xat.com chatroom. They had avatars and stuff in there.

[Dragon]

I've looked at several different chat options and have a few observations:

• I want the chat module to reside with our account on our server.  It may just be me trying to be overprotective, but I don't want anyone else to monitor our chat at all!.
  
• There are some interesting chat modules our there. one of the better ones only costs $399 ... anyone want to sponsor it, 'cause I sure can't afford that! (( That's rhetorical, I don't expect anyone to offer. ))
  
• If you notice, there is a chat bar at the bottom of the screen.  It's strictly one on one at the moment.  The author has indicated that he'd like to make a group chat but hasn't put a time line on that.  While I'm not a chatty person (just ask anyone who's gotten me on the phone!) I like group chat!
  
• To use the chat bar:
  • [li]Click on "Who's Online" and select the user with whom you want to chat.  That will open a, non movable damnit, chat window
    
  • Enter your text in the box at the bottom of the window.  Note that the more you type, the slower the chat will be.  Smaller comments work MUCH better than one line comment.
    
  • The chat box can be minimized and restored, if it gets in your way, without losing the conversation.
    
  • One interesting side effect, if you select another language, the entire page is translated (might be something for those who aren't native English speakers?)
    
  [/li]
  

For the time being, I'll say this is temporary until I find another, better chat option.  But as someone told me yesterday "It's better than nothin'"

[nightsong]

OK the translation thing is pretty cool!